You've lost me with your first point, Brendy. On point two, I've made no reference to the official stands of governments, unless you mean Mandela's statements. Are you saying that notwithstanding the Mandela/ANC public positions, the South African government has been supporting PIRA?

Shimuyarira was of course talking about Zanu PF's attitude, not the Zimbabwean government's. Do you believe that Zanu PF's attitude was different in practice? Do enlighten us.(I was meeting him not as a journo, BTW, but through knowing many Zimbabweans who had been exiled in London during the UDI years.) In those days, incidentally, Mugabe was a respected, and in some quarters revered, statesman rather than the corrupt, gay-bashing arsehole he's become. Ah, the tragedy of it.

As for wandering from the subject, I wandered only far enough to embrace the issues that have been raised in response. I started the thread because I had seen (and seen reported) an aspect of the prisoner releases that I found disturbing (seeing Michael Stone accorded celebrity status earlier in the week was disturbing too). Paddymac came back with two useful posts, the second of which showed a side which I had missed, which I was delighted to know about, as indeed I said. Others have chipped in from one viewpoint or another, some closer than others to the topic, and all of which I welcome. So what's eating you Brendy? And what's the punishment for thread creep anyway? *BG*